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I am a HUGE fan of baby wearing. I didn't wear Katie at all, but she was easy regardless. Danny was a bit more of a challenge, he didn't like the carrier I had. With Sean, however, we found a perfect fit, and that kid didn't even go into a stroller until he was almost 1!! So, now that I'm expecting again (did I forget to announce that?? My bad. :) ), I'm REALLY excited to find this giveaway. Here's the link, and may one of us win!! Win a Free Organic Embroidered Ergo Baby Carrier Hands Free System from Along for the Ride |
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Hi all! It's beena while since I posted anything about what we're doing, so here goes: We're using Tapestry of Grace, Year 1, and we're still in Ancient Egypt. We're pretty much using 2 weeks for every 1, making sure we really "get" it. A couple of weeks ago, we made salt maps! One was a made-up continent, to help us learn about all the geographical terms (contenent, island, canal, mountain range, mesa, ect.), and the other was about Egypt ('cause, silly mommy forgot to print off the maps they were *supposed* to do. But, we had tons of salt dough left, so it worked out all right!). Here's pics of us making our salt maps:
After we were done, making the salt map, we set it to dry, and had a bunch of dough left over, so we made cartouches, which were nameplates used for kings and queens. (I didn't realize that I was a week ahead on this project, it just seemed really cool to do... that's what I get for not reading far enough ahead!! LOL)
^^ Sean being... almost 2... he was ornery that night. LOL
Well, that's what we've been up to! The kids haven't been feeling well, so we're taking it easy on the school front this week, trying to head off the flu that's going around the church. Tonight I'll post final pics of our salt maps and cartouches. Till then, have a blessed day!
^^ Danny writing his name in hyroglyphics.
^^ Katie writing hers. The one that's done is the one I did for Sean. Then we put them up in closets (so the baby wouldn't get to them), and...promptly forgot about them. We made them about a week and a half ago, we painted them last night.
The other big deal of October for us was our first ever Book It! celebration! We got our coupons, and went to Pizza Hut after Sabbath on Saturday night. The kids had a BLAST, and they were SO kind, Danny was worried to death that Sean didn't have a coupon, too, and offered to give his to him.
Danny with his prize... a book bag tag!
Katie with her prize! Having fun:
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I'll post pics of that when DH gets home (he's got them on his camera). 
And, one of the best parts (in my book anyway...) was that since DH and I could order a smaller pizza ('cause the kids were taken care of), I was able to get my Super Speciality (read: not exactly cheap) Taco Pizza!!! (I have a thing about Pizza Hut Taco Pizzas. LOL) Pizza Hut ran out of stickers, but they did get their little book bag tag, and they had a lot of fun. Here are pics of us at Pizza Hut:
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OK, I've been purposely not blogging, b/c the election has been HIGH on my mind, and, really, everyone's blogging about it. But I saw this online (my husband sent me to it), and it just had to be shown. Please keep in mind a couple of things: 1) the school district where this took place is Cumberland County, NC. It's the home of Ft. Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne Division, and of Pope Air Force Base. It is a very large base, with a very, VERY strong military presence. Which brings me to #2. How do I know? I lived there. In fact, it was a combination of Cumberland County schools, and the neighboring school district in Raeford, where I lived, that was the major reason why we decided to homeschool. They're beyond atrocious to begin with. Really, really bad, just on an academic level, without getting into all the "social" issues. So, because of this, I really perked up when I saw this:
Yet, one more reason why I homeschool. As a vet's wife, as a vet myself, I would've torn that teacher UP! Regardless of who you supported, the very idea that this teacher was using fear tactics and humiliation to indoctrinate students to HER way of thinking... It's beyond out of line. What has this country come to? **********UPDATE********** Of course, the Cumberland County School Superintendent found out about the video, and is less than pleased. Here's his answer:
And the written statement, in case the video doesn't work:
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I love giveaways, can ya tell? LOL Not that I've actually WON anything, but it's a ton of fun, anyway!! You've GOT to check out folderfun.com!! I first got introduced to File Folder games when I was the Teacher's Aide at my daughter's church school. We had 11 kids, in K-4. It was a NECESSITY that we had things to keep one group busy while instructing the others. When the teacher showed me the file folder games, I KNEW I HAD to have these for my house! Now, I've brought my daughter home again, and I've got 3 kids here, DS1, DS5 (*almost 6, MOM!), and DD7. And I have a few (although not enough!) games to keep them somewhat occupied. They teach them basic skills (colors, numbers, shapes) to math to language arts to science. (Can you tell I'm a fan??)
You can click on the link above to go to the giveaway. There are 3 different prizes, with a total of 6 winners. Go check it out, and have fun! |
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I really like this lady! If you haven't been over to the Ship Full O' Pirates blog, you've GOT to check it out. She's got a wonderful sense of humor, and a lovely family! I found her browsing the blogs on the Homeschool Toolbar, and I'm so glad I did! Anyway, onto the giveaway! She's giving away a boxed set of DVDs from Vision Forum, How to Disciple Your Family: A Plan for Generational Victory (10 DVD set).
I SO want this!!! Stop by her blog to find out how to win! |
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The American Dream... Work hard, have the ability to play hard. Own a house, white picket fence, the whole nine yards. We, personally, have worked hard for our American Dream. We're not there yet, but we're workin' on it! And no one, no one should be able to take it away from us. I think that's something we could probably all agree on. This, therefore, is why I'm NOT voting Obama/Biden in the upcoming election:
(In case the link doesn't work, you can see the video here.)
Anybody getting flashbacks of 1984?? |
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Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter's first horse! Oh, and she's not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You'll see photos from the 50's through the 80's. But, you'll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane. Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It's all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first - for FREE ($12.45 value)!
Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their Fall Special.
If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you'll get:
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OK, so I just joined the Blogger Friend School, and this is this week's assignment. :) Bear with me as I catch up on them, though, you might see more than a few. ;)
Memory Verse: Isaiah 40: 1- Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Intro: “Have It Your Way” (Burger King) - As cooler weather approaches and the winter eases into our doors I like to lounge by the fire after a hot shower. I love to make soups that are brimming with a rich and full flavor. In our home there’s nothing better than a hot bowl of soup or and a hot cup of coffee or cocoa on a cold winter night. Assignment: Tell us all about how your have “your” relaxing time, more especially how during the cooler months you take time to curl up with your favorite movie, book, Bible study, and what your favorite warm drink would be. I LOVE fall!! I absolutely ADORE it, it's my favorite time of year. I love warm sweaters, warmer fires, and mugs of something steaming. I love fuzzy socks and pulling out mittens and scarves. So, for fall, especially, my favorite thing to do to relax is to curl up in my bed or on the couch with a good book and a mug of something hot and some wonderful-smelling candles nearby. I ADORE Friendship Tea on stormy, windy, chilly nights. A close second is either Yogi Tea's or Celestial Seasoning's Bedtime Teas, they're both awesome! (But I will say that Yogi's relaxes me more, and add that to some loose-leaf lavendar tea, it's AMAZING.) Like I said, my favorite is Friendship tea. The recipe is SO simple, it's nuts. I usually make a bunch in a larger Tupperware canister or bowl, then I can seal it and have plenty left over. You add 1-2 tablespoons (or more, dependening on your preference) to a mug of hot water. There are many varied recipes, you can find some good ones here. (Sorry there are no pics, we're saving up for a camera... but you can imagine my adorable little snowman mug that's my newest addition, just brimming with honeyed tea, if you'd like. |
![]("http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x255/ScrapbookingBlessings/BFS/MyAssignment.jpg")
) Since we're still without furniture, the only cozy spot is in my head. ;) But, when we get everything together, I'll make sure to post a pic of what we come up with. :)|
That the Nile is made up of lemonaide? And the Mediterranian Sea is made of chocolate milk?? And the Nile Delta is really a marsh of milkshakes??? Yeah, it was one of THOSE days. LOL |
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OK, not my giveaway... I got nothing TO giveaway! BUT... I downloaded the Homeschool Toolbar tonight (if you haven't checked it out, there's a button on my sidebar...), and this one blog caught my eye, Ship Full of Pirates. (That SO sounds like my house some days...) So, anyway, she's got this really awesome book to giveaway! Actually, she's giving two, one for you to read, and one to loan out!
I was on an email list run by Stacy McDonald once many, many moons ago, and she's a very godly woman. I really enjoyed my time learning from her, so I'm REALLY excited about this giveaway! Go check out the blog, and enter the contest! In His Love, Kristi |
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OK, so I just spent HOURS updating my page (I'm not the greatest on HTML, k??), and putting all these cool badges and such on, then I realized that I haven't blogged in a while! Kinda silly to update your blog, then NOT BLOG, huh? So, here's what's been going on with us: We started TOG today... FINALLY!! The kids are excited to learn about Ancient Egypt. We're still winging it a bit, we didn't have the money to buy all the notebook and binder supplies we need, but that should be in soon, and we'll be OK. Now if we can just get books, teacher's manuals, craft supplies... I've decided to go ahead and start the baby on Brightly Beaming's Toddler Curriculum. Not that he really NEEDS a curriculum, but he's bored, and he's driving the kids nuts wanting to play with them during school, so I figured giving him something of his own to kind of do and play with me, might help. We're getting settled in OK. People from the church brought us chairs, and the people who were here before us left a table (sort of...) so at least we have a place to sit. We've got tons of dishes and cooking supplies, too, so we're good to go in that fashion. The people from church have been SO kind, it's been unreal. The Lord has really blessed us bringing us to this church. Two women brought us over groceries, and dishes, pots and pans, ect, and then it turns out we moved in just a few doors down from one of the other families, and they brought us a beautiful basket with homemade bread and goodies in it!! It's SO wonderful! I swear, this is the NICEST church I've ever been to! There are quite a few homeschooling families at the church, 3 that I can count. We make 4. That's too cool, at our last church, there wasn't any, except us! The family who lives down a bit is one of them, and they have a daughter Katie's age, so I'm really happy about that! Other than that, it's the same ol' same ol'! I joined two other sites, BTW, and their buttons should be on my sidebar. Go check them out, and look for me on them! They're A Virtuous Wife and The Homeschool Lounge. See ya over there! In His Love, Kristi |
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OK, so I don't even remember the last time I blogged. To say it's been a while is a GRAVE understatement. It's one of those things that I always INTEND to do, and usually get to it once or twice, then life happens... That said, let me share what God has brought us to and through in the past, oh, almost year or so... First, we pulled Katie out of school, and that went rather well. We sort of unschooled the rest of the year, and into the summer. My DH was looking for a job somewhere, ANYWHERE out of state (he gets the moving bug every couple of years, left over from military life, I suppose), and we had a 1 year old, so, since she wasn't of compulsory age yet, I let things slide, as far as a formal set up went. He didn't find a job, thought he had a couple of good leads, but nothing ever panned out. One, in Wyoming, we prayed HARD for, but then the company was sold, and it looked like a dead end. Since we had to get out of where we were (a pretty bad neighborhood, in a rather large city), we started looking about 45 minutes away for a new house. After much drama that I won't bore you with here, we finally found one. 4 bedrooms (YEA! An extra room for school stuff and toys!!), a nice sized double-wide, in a trailer court that would a) take our pets (2 dogs), and b) I knew someone in. It was in our price range, too. We called it an answer to prayer. I packed up the house, just tossing most stuff in boxes, since it wasn't a long move, and we rented a UHaul. I swear, as my husband was driving to UHaul, he got a call. The job in Wyoming panned out anyway. And they wanted him ASAP. It's his complete dream job. Working outside, alone, a *very* rural community, and far away from the city, which is what we've been praying for. I tried hard not to pout about the fact that here it is August, we haven't ordered anything for school yet, and all of the supplies I *do* have, and all of our...everything... is packed up!! Well, to make a long story short, DH came out here for about 3 weeks before the kids and I were able to, but, with God's grace, I made it out here with 3 kids and a dog (we had to put our other down, he got sick), on a 3 day trip, all by myself! Then we lived in a hotel for 3 weeks... BUT... We're finally getting settled!!! We're in our own place, another trailer, but it's a shelter, at least, and it's got heat. We have no furniture (we got rid of everything when we realized how far we were moving), and everything that I couldn't fit in the van is still in storage in Indiana. We're broke, beyond belief, but we're here. And this place is AMAZING! God truly does work in mysterious ways. Our family is coming closer together again, and DH and I have been raising them the way we felt led by the Lord, rather than how we felt pressured to by others. So, now, yet another Adventure in Homeschooling begins. We're beginning a new curriculum, Tapestry of Grace, Year 1. It's our first time using a classical curriculum, although I've always been so interested in it. I always felt that I wouldn't be able to "pull it off," but, I don't know if it's the air, or the mountains, or the everyday reminders of God's strength, but I know now's the right time for us, and this is the right place. We haven't ordered it yet, like I said, we're WAY broke, but, hopefully in the next couple of weeks or so. We'll be using Hooked on Phonics and Hooked on Math, simply because I got them way cheap at a yard sale back in June. Hopefully, next year, I plan on buying MathUSee for both kids. And, we'll be using the Apologia Exploring Creation With... Series. We're working on Astronomy this year. That seems to be the first book in the series, and that works well, since the kids both said earlier this year they wanted to learn more about outer space. We're going to be using A Reason for Spelling and A Reason for Handwriting, and... I think that's it this year. Honestly, I think that's about all I can handle. LOL So, that's our plan for the year. Until we get everything ordered, we're kind of winging it, finding stuff as we go along. Hopefully, we'll be in the clear next month, and we'll be able to get everything, or mostly everything ordered. A big problem we're having is that the library in town doesn't have the books we need. Like, at all. Any of them. So I went looking to do ILL's, and they're not in the state. Lovely, huh? SO, we'll be adding to our home library a lot this year!! Which is fine with me, but cost major $$, as most of you know. We could really use any prayers, and I'll try to actually keep the blog up this year!! LOL Till next time... |
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Well, sort of. Do you ever really, truly start over? I mean, learning happens constantly with children, so I suppose a better title for this is A New Road... We decided in July, 2007, to send Katie to school. Our church was opening a one room schoolhouse type school, promised to be small, 5 grades, K-4, and 11 kids. (There are 10 now, one moved away.) On top of it, I was asked to be the aide, so I took the job, excited that I'd still get to be around Katie all day!! I can't begin to list the things that have gone wrong. I'll try not to turn this into a rant, but it was one disaster after another. At Christmas break, I quit, a friend of mine took over the aide's job. Which, btw, is actually the full-time Kindergarten teacher, plus aide work, so it's 2 full time jobs for the pay of 1. (One of the many, MANY reason's I quit.) It was *promised* that things would get better after the break, we'd start getting school work sent home, things like that. More communication. What *happened* was more busywork. Yeah, I'm not so much down with busywork. Katie is ahead of her class, she desperately needs bumped up into the first grade, but the teacher refuses to. (She told us that Katie's academically ready, but not emotionally ready. Anybody have any idea what that means??) ANYWAY, enough of my rant!! LOL We considered just changing schools, but we've decided instead to homeschool her again. I just can't see paying someone else tuition if this is what's going to happen, it's going to be a battle between us and the teacher, with Katie stuck in the middle and her education suffering. Besides, Katie was having fits this weekend (long weekend for President's Day) because she wasn't going to get to do all the "fun" stuff with us, grocery shopping, making lunch, zoo and Children's Museum during the day, stuff like that. So, soon we'll be buying a new curriculum, My Father's World Grade 1, and pretty much most of the K curriculum, too. (I gave it to the school when the Kindergarten curriculum didn't come in until November. We're planning on starting when it gets warm again. I work better in the warm weather, so, rather than a September-May year, we'll work during the summer. There's just SO much to do outside!!! We'll also get back into the habit of going to the zoo and the Children's Museum once a week. If you've never seen the Indianapolis Children's Museum, it's a MUST see if you make it out this way. The zoo is amazing, too. We like to go first thing in the morning, the animals are very active, and getting fed and such, and it's SO very cool!!! So, that's our new plans. Any advice for deprogramming after leaving school would be greatly appriciated!!! |
Loving that. We're planning a garden, at the very least. We're trying to go more organic, and it's SO very expensive, I thought we might try our hand at our own organic garden. (Or, at least, as organic as you can get with city soil...) |
Well, believe it or not, it's only been 5 days of school! We've had dr's appts, colds, tummy bugs, UGH!!!
We're not doing too badly, as long as we stick to the phonics and Kindergarten curriculum. Both of them, in their own ways, are learning very well.
Lately, what's been going on at our house is a running discussion (led by me, of courese) of homeschooling restrictions. In the state of Indiana, the only regulations are that you must teach for 180 days, and you must provide an education at least equivalent to a public school. OK I could seriously teach my chldren Kindergarten for 12 years and they would be on the same level as seniors graduating this year, but that's a whole 'nother rant....
Through a homeschooling group, and article was brought to my attention out of Evansville. You can read the article here, and more comments on the article here. In reading the article and comments, we naturally started discussing the situation in my home. A little background: My mother lives with us. In addition, I have one cousin who was "homeschooled." And I use quotes because in truth, his parents simply used the law to allow him to drop out in fifth grade. They both worked full time, and he ran the neighborhood, not learning a thing. Now, this cousin still lives with mommy and daddy, has no job, no... anything. He sits around and smokes pot all day. Now, this is what my family thinks about when I first brought up homeschooling. I know, I know, I shouldn't care what other people think, but we're a close family, and I do. Besides which, I'm exhausted from listening to how far "behind" my 5 yo is... She's 5!! Behind compared to whom???
Now, the article stresses the usual "we need to watch these people more" rhetoric, and uses from what I've seen, uniquely bad examples. Even for an argument that is so illogical to begin with. However, when I mentioned it to my mother and husband, of course, the cousin came up. After going back and forth for two days, I finally asked point blank, "If you knew this was going on, and you knew he wasn't being educated, why didn't you call DCS?" Of course, there was no answer. The fact is, everyone was far too lazy.
Why, why should I be punished because people are too lazy to care about their families? Why, when the majority of homeschoolers are responsible, loving, caring, attentive parents, must we be punished for a small minority of parents who would be abusive and/or neglectful whether or not their children were in public schools or homeschooled??
The answer to the above questions: Because the children don't belong to you, they belong to the government. Now, I know this to be true, but it doesn't make it any less disturbing. Is anyone else really freaked out by this??? I think, until I had children, it didn't really occur to me.
Now, I want to say, in writing this blog, I went to look for proof. I found a few articles of the government overstepping their bounds, this is one of them:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47195
However, I found no laws, other than the above decision? Does anyone else know of any? How far is the government allowed to go? As far as the courts allow them to? How scary is that?
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Yesterday we had our first day of school. I think everything went very well! Today things are a bit more difficult, Katie's wanting to play instead of do her worksheets, and she's not listening very well. I think it's my style, somehow. She absolutely refuses to write her "2"'s today, and in general, the workbook time has been difficult. And I'm getting impatient. She knows better, she knows how to write her 2's, she just is being difficult. Daddy's going to have to have a talk with her he gets home. |
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Welcome to our blog! A little about us, we are a family who lives on the East Side of Indianapolis. We have 2 blessings, Kindergarten and PreK, and one on the way. Mommy is having a hard time with this pregnancy, she's high-risk this time, with Grave's Disease, which is a severly high thyroid. So she's really trying to take it easy. Still, we're starting homeschooling this year. Katie will be working on the My Father's World curriculum, and Danny will be kinda going along with her. Stay tuned to hear all about our adventures!! |